DigitalChumps is switching severs and getting a new CMS. For now the raw text of my review is dumped here (I think):
http://txti.es/tfiho
Takeaways:
- For the first four or so hours I assumed The Last Guardian simply aspired to be a role-reversal take on Ico. A fun if not slightly cumbersome puzzle game with light platforming elements. I kept searching for the moments that made Ico and Shadow special, and I wasn't finding them
- That changled completely in the last act. There wasn't some big reveal, I just wasn't paying attention to what The Last Guardian was creating with the relationship between the boy and Trico. It was leaving pieces, I just wasn't assembling them. The Last Guardian has its "moments" that will endure and trancend the game elements, just like Ueda's previous work.
- People will complain that Trico is stubborn and refuses to listen to commands, or that it's hard to immediately tell where you should be going, especially when Trico doesn't seem interesting in going there. This is valid. The game would be easier if you had some kind of pointer mechanic to clearly direct Trico. I think this would also destroy much of the point of the game. Building the relationship, through hardship that may or may not be intentional, succeeds in forming a bond.
I think this will be the most divisive issue in the game, and people on either side will have enough to create a good argument.
- Not up for debate: the climbing mechanic sucks (the boy can't accend a rope and leap off with any sort of reliability), the camera is messy, climbing on Trico has some vestigal difficulty from climbing a Colossus, and the frame rate occasionally takes a serious hit. I didn't care about any of this, and it didn't affect my admiration for the game.
- I have a suspicion that people that have loving relationship with a dog or cat will get more out of the game
- Watch through the credits.